history2701fandomcom-20200214-history
The Hunt in the Forest
Brief Identification This artifact is a painting called "The Hunt in the Forest". It was painted by Renaissance artist Paolo di Dono, called Paolo Uccello, between 1465-1470. It is known to have been created in Italy, in either Urbino or Florence. It is currently located in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. Technical Evaluation The painting was done using mainly tempera (a type of fast-drying paint) and oil paint. The painting also contains traces of gold in the trees, raising its worth. It is on panel measuring 73.3 x 177 cm (height x width). The piece is exceptional because art of this size on panel rarely survive the middle ages, let alone into modern-day Kemp and Massing 1991, 164. The piece was presented to the Ashmolean Museum by art collector William Thomas Horner Fox-Strangways in 1850, but it is unknown how he acquired it. Local Historical Context This painting was by the artist Paolo Uccello. Uccello was an apprentice to the famous sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti at the age of ten. By age 18, he was part of "the painter's guild of Florence Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali". He was commissioned by the House of Medici (a ruling Florentine family) which allowed him to support himself very well in his career as a painter. While the intended recipient of the painting is unknown, it is widely thought it could have been for the Medici family. Some historians believe that the painting depicts the "hunt conducted by the Italian nobleman Lorenzo de'Medici". The painting was clearly meant to be aesthetically pleasing rather than accurate. The hunting scene depicted does not coincide with hunting practices at the time. According to hunting manuals from this era, deer hunting was done during the day, not at night as depicted Kemp and Massing 1991, 167. Another aspect that is often called into question is the trees. They are painted as if they had been trimmed at the bottom and planted equidistantly, but this obviously would not be the case in a typical hunting scene done in a natural forest. World Historical Context The painting is a production of the early Renaissance Era. This was a "period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages and conventionally held to have been characterized by "a surge of interest in classical scholarship and values ." This surge of intellectual interest led to an increase of aristocratic interest in the arts. The Renaissance Era is not only known for its production of new intellectual ideas but also for its new genre of artwork. The Renaissance's focus on the beauty of nature, as well as the importance of the individual, fueled the production of new art. The Renaissance also saw the development of humanism, a focus of humankind and the importance of the individual. Humanism had a major influence over Renaissance art, almost becoming synonymous together. The Hunt in the Forest is one of the hundreds of pieces of Renaissance artwork that depicts scenes based around humans, and it is a particularly important Renaissance piece because it combines both major elements of nature and humanism. As well as being an important piece of Renaissance art, this painting was the last piece done by Paolo Uccello before his death in 1475. Bibliography Ashmolean Museum. “The Hunt in the Forest.” Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, https://www.ashmolean.org/hunt-forest. “Biography of Paolo Uccello.” Paolo Uccello.org, 2017. http://www.paolouccello.org/biography.html. Elkins, James. “Renaissance Perspectives.” Journal of the History of Ideas 53, no. 2 (1992), 209-230. Jones, Jonathan. “The Best Painting of... Hunters at Night.” The Guardian, September 17, 2008. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2008/sep/17/best.painting .hunters.night.forest.uccello. Kemp, M. and Massing, A. “Paolo Uccello’s ‘Hunt in the Forest’.” The Burlington Magazine 133, No. 1056 (1991), 164-178. Paoletti, John T. “Paolo Uccello.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/art/panel-painting.